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ESEA, the popular online entertainment platform has lost the personal information of 1.5 million of its users to hackers, it has been reported. In a series of Tweets, the company announced back in December 2016 that it had discovered a massive breach of its security features and that it was assessing the extent of the possible damage.

Initially, the company was adamant to acknowledge that the hacker had demanded $100k from the company as ransom.

However, initial reports indicated that the hacker had gotten in touch with the company and asked the management to pay the ransom fees for him to avoid leaking the stolen data of millions of users of the ESEA services.

According to Leaked Source, a famous website that publishes information about compromised websites, it appears that the extent of the initial hacking is yet to be fully established. Leaked Source estimates that ESEA may have lost more than the stated data of 1.5 million users. Leaked Source further says that the hackers must have made away with data containing the names, email addresses and other person-identifying credentials of ESEA users.

Interestingly, ESEA, in its recent tweets about the incident, has acknowledged that the hacker made a demand for ransom.

‘the hacker contacted the management of ESEA, saying that he had gained access to the data of our users and asking for a ransom payment of $100,000,’ the company said.

It was reported that the hacker made contact with the company back on 27th December 2016.

However, it appears that the management of ESEA decided not to comply with the demands of the hacker and that it must have been as a result of the stance of ESEA that the hacker went ahead and leaked the stolen data of ESEA users to prove a point.

In its official version of the incident, ESEA does not mention the actual number of accounts that were compromised. However, the company says that it is working hard to restore its systems back to normal operation. It also announces a series of measures that it says will help it to not only reset the level of security that its users were enjoying before but also prevent a similar incident from occurring in the future.

About Ali Raza

Ali is a freelance journalist, having 5 years of experience in web journalism and marketing. He contributes to various online publications. With a master degree, now he combines his passions for writing about internet security and technology. When he is not working, he loves traveling and playing games.